This is fine.
We had the incredible opportunity this week to speak with solo songwriter J. Tillman about his musical endeavors. Mr. Tillman talks about his new solo record Year in the Kingdom and his work with indie powerhouse Fleet Foxes. This interview should serve as a nice preview to the J. Tillman show coming up on Friday at Mohawk. Follow the jump for full interview.
| Date | 10/7/09 |
|---|---|
| Location | Mohawk |
| Doors | 8pm |
| Tickets | $12 From Frontgate |
If you’re looking for some Wednesday night quality music shows, head over to the Mohawk on Wednesday night for a set by the incomparable David Bazan. Apparently Mr. Bazan will be playing with his old buddies from Pedro the Lion so this should be a good one. Openers for the evening are Say Hi.
[audio: https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/blessthismessgfp.mp3]Download: David Bazan – Bless This Mess [MP3]
Fresh off the release of his critically acclaimed album, Curse Your Branches, David Bazan stopped into the Daytrotter studios and laid down three tracks from the afformentioned album. Bazan and his band embark on a cross country tour, in their new van, on October 1st, showing up in Austin at the Mohawk on the 7th.
Download: David Bazan – Bless This Mess (live) [MP3]
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With Curse Your Branches David Bazan returns with his second release with Barsuk Records (his first being 2006’s Fewer Moving Parts EP), and his first full length since the Headphone’s 2005 self titled album. After collaborating with TW Walsh on both Pedro the Lion’s Achilles Heel (2004) and the aforementioned Headphones LP, Bazan once again finds himself the captain of the ship, as well as its only crew member.
Curse Your Branches is a fascinating record in that it feels both new and familiar at the same time. The same plaintive singer/songwriter is still present in Bazan that we’ve come to know and love (or loathe) for almost fifteen years now. Tracks like ‘Hard To Be’, ‘Curse Your Branches’ & ‘In Stitches’ feel lived in upon first listen. That’s not to say that these songs are stale. These songs have an urgency that was missing on the Fewer Moving Parts EP. Bazan brings a newfound confidence to these recordings, both musically and lyrically. On ‘Bless This Mess’, ‘Please Baby, Please’, & ‘When We Fell’ Bazan exhibits a Randy Newman-esque smirk, exuding a swagger not usually found on past Pedro the Lion records.
To address the elephant in the room: David Bazan has written a, as Jessica Hopper put it, “harrowing breakup record” in which he dumps God. I feel that that is an apt description of a heartbreaking record. The lyrics on Curse Your Branches have catalogued the both public and private struggles Bazan has had since Pedro the Lion dissolved in 2004, from alcoholism to his departure from a lifetime of faith. This isn’t your feel good Summer road trip record. It’s weighty with its subject matter, it’s the story of growth, departure, and haunting, like the itch on a phantom limb. This haunting is evident in the album’s closer, ‘In Stitches’: I might as well admit it/ Like I even have a choice/ The crew have killed the captain/ But they still can hear his voice/ A shadow on the water/ A whisper in the wind/ On long walks with my daughter/ Who is lately full of questions about you.
Something must be said about one man in a studio with a clear and concise vision of what he wants to put on tape. Everything, from the reverse playback of the melody at the beginning of ‘Hard to Be’ to the howl of a man with a broken heart on ‘In Stitches’, is in it’s right place. On Curse Your Branches, David Bazan has turned in the most focused album of his career.
David Bazan will be playing at the Mohawk on October 7th.
[audio:https://austintownhall.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/blessthismessgfp.mp3]Download: David Bazan – Bless This Mess [MP3]
David Bazan, the man who sometimes calls himself Pedro the Lion, is about to drop his first full length album under his own name. The album will be called Curse Your Branches and will be hitting stores September 1st via Barsuk Records. Here’s the very first single from the new album called “Bless This Mess”. We likes it.
Download: David Bazan – Bless This Mess [MP3]
Looking back at my sad excuse for a life, I realize that my obsession with music had to begin at some point. I flirted with metal, as I alluded to last week, but mostly I found my love in classic California pop music and punk rock. Along the way, I meandered a bit off the path, as most did during the late nineties. Where did I land? I landed in the wonderful world of emo. Sure, you’re thinking that I shopped at Hot Topic and couldn’t get Fall Out Boy out of my head, but I’m talking about the predecessors to the entire scene; well, the predecessors of the predecessors. I’ve devoted this week’s Top 5 to my one true love, emo. We’ll call it my Pop 5 Emo Records, and the countdown is after the jump.
In a time when every artist is more political than they should be, David Bazan (Pedro the Lion/Headphones) thought he’d follow the trend. Mr. Bazan has a new song streaming on his myspace page entitled “American Flags” and I bet you can’t guess what it’s about. This is the first new music we’ve seen from The Lion himself since his 2007 release Fewer Moving Pieces. Listen to the new song now.
